An overhead garage door 8 as depicted in FIG. 1 usually includes several horizontally oriented sections 10, 12, 14, 16 hinged together, and with rollers 18 at each edge that ride in tracks 20 such that the door 8 rolls up and down vertically when opened and closed. The tracks 20, in which the door 8 rides, angle slightly away from door frame 22 bottom-to-top in order to facilitate opening of door 8 without rubbing or binding on frame 22 as the door opens.
It is desirable that all the door sections 10, 12, 14, 16 are as close as possible to door frame 22 when door 8 is in the closed position in order to facilitate sealing of the opening defined by frame 22 against weather and against the passage of unwanted insects and pest animals. As a result, the hinges between the successive vertical door sections 10, 12, 14, 16 have slightly different geometry, and are actually numbered for uniformity in the industry as depicted in FIG. 1A. Starting at the bottom of the door, hinges 24 between the first and second door sections are assigned location #1, hinges 26 between the second and third door sections are assigned location #2, hinges 28 between the third and fourth door sections are assigned location #3, and so on.
Referring now to prior art FIG. 1A, each hinge 30 generally includes first bracket 32 and second bracket 34, pivotally coupled by hinge pin 36. After the hinge for location #1, each successive hinge includes a bushing 38 for receiving an axle and a roller that rides in track 20. The bushing is located further and further away from the door to accommodate the vertical rearward slant of track 20. As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 1A, hinge 24 (position #1) has the axle and roller riding in hinge pin 36. For hinge 26 (position #2), the axle and roller ride in bushing 38 which is slightly vertically offset from the axis of hinge pin 36. As can be seen, each successive hinge positions bushing 38 is further horizontally offset from hinge pin 36—in order to accommodate the slant of track 20 rearwardly away from frame 22 in the vertical direction.
It is typical for garage door manufacturers to supply different hinges for each of the numbered connections between different vertical panels of the door—so, it is necessary to manufacture and supply as many different hinges as there are different vertical garage door sections to be hinged. These different hinges are not interchangeable—for instance, a hinge at location #1 cannot be interchanged for a hinge at location #2, #3, #4, or any of the successive locations because the roller location would be incorrect and would cause binding when the door is opened and closed.
This leads to inefficiency in manufacturing in having to supply the different hinges, and to extra cost and delay when an installer or repair technician must ensure that a correctly numbered hinge is available and installed at each vertical door panel hinge point. What is needed in the industry is a universal overhead door hinge that can be easily adjusted to accommodate installation at any of the vertical locations on the door.